andrew88

Hi there,

I'm posting this out of desperation if nothing else as I'm really struggling with these symptoms I've got and my doctor really isn't much help at all.

I want to start by saying from around the age of 16/17 I've had stomach problems which was eventually put down to IBS but I've really never been convinced. There was never a process of elimination that took place. I had one sigmoidoscopy which looked okay, my doctor put me on mebeverine told me I probably had IBS and sent me on my way. That was the extent of the testing that took place. My symptoms then were bloating and excess gas with occasional bouts of diohrrea and were fairly manageable, but annoying. Things actually calmed down for a while after that and I only had occasional bad bouts of it.

Several years down the line and now 24 things have got pretty drastic again and much worse then they have ever been. For the last year I've had CONSTANT nausea which starts at a low level and gets progressively worse throughout the day. My evening meal relieves it for a short period but it comes back worse and keeps getting worse until I go to bed. I have daily bloating and gas worse than ever before. But the worst thing of all is severe constipation. At best I go for roughly a week without a bowel movement before going naturally (but quite often still feeling unrelieved). At worst it's longer and I eventually resort to taking senekot tablets because if I didn't I very much doubt the urge to go would ever come. (in both these situations the exception would be maybe a couple of occasions of very tiny bowel movements in the form of pellets). Please note though I try to take senekot tablets as little as possible because I am aware of developing dependancy problems. This obviously means huge levels of discomfort, bloating, feeling tired and the complete lack of wanting to do anything which is in turn getting me really depressed.

The other main symptom is a ridiculously noisy stomach and abdomen which seems to correspond with the nausea. Gargling, bubbling, squishing. And whats more is that if I actually put slight pressure on my abdomen, particularly the right side i can make it squish myself. It's kind of quite gross. This goes all way way up my stomach and actually up the centre past my ribs to my sternum. Both the unaided gurgling/squishing and if i put slight pressure. It's almost like loads of liquid builds up in the sides and the top of my stomach.

The other thing worth noting is throat problems I've also had which started around the same time. I have this constant feeling of something stuck in the back of my throat which I feel I have to constantly try and hack up. It feels like a mucus build up but very little comes up and I get very limited relief. Whenever I do try and cough to clear it, I get a rotten eggy/sulphur taste. I'm also burping a large amount and wake up with a rather sore throat every morning which subsides eventually but the sensation of a lump in the back of my throat does not. The back of my throat also looks quite red and aggravated with some whitish stains on the very back of my mouth/throat.

So basically I'm wondering if anyone has any ideas? I'm concerned because all this has been going on for about a year now and are really not the same symptoms I have experienced in the past when i was told I probably had IBS. They feel like very new and different symptoms, particularly the constipation. One thing about my stomach problems prior to this is that I've always had relatively normal and regular bowel movements and if anything used to get small bouts of diorreah. And the other worry is how my original stomach problems had really diminished and almost disappeared before all this started.

I have been to the doctor about this in the last year and at first he told me he thought it was stress related and almost insinuated that it was worse in my head then it actually was physically. (believe me these are very real symptoms). I went again and he told me he thinks I might have Acid Reflux (which I guess make make sense in relation to the nausea and throat problems but not anything else) but didn't prescribe me with anything and just told me to try taking gaviscon every night before bed. This doesn't seem like valid doctors advice. I'm at a loss.

Anyway, apologies for the long message. Look forward to hearing back from anyone who might help. Thank you.